[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 155 (Wednesday, September 25, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RECOGNIZING THE LEGACY OF MARRINER S. ECCLES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BEN McADAMS

                                of utah

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 25, 2019

  Mr. McADAMS. Madam Speaker, Utah native Marriner S. Eccles is one of 
the giants in the history of America's free enterprise banking system 
and the father of the modern Federal Reserve.
  He was born in Logan, Utah in 1890 and as a child, worked in several 
of his father's businesses. He created a family holding company, the 
Eccles Investment Company, in 1916 to manage various enterprises. By 
the mid-1920s, he, his brother George and others had organized the 
First Security Corporation, believed to be the first multibank holding 
company. Before entering public service, he successfully prevented the 
collapse of the family bank in 1931. In 1933, Congress invited him to 
give his analysis of the Great Depression. He delivered a five-point 
program to fix the economy that formed the basis of the New Deal.
  When Marriner Eccles was named Chair of the Federal Reserve in 1934, 
he was just 44 years old. Time magazine wrote at the time, ``Many 
believe Marriner S. Eccles is the only thing standing between the U.S. 
and disaster.''
  Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich has stated that any list of 
the most influential individuals on America's thinking in the post-war 
era must include Marriner S. Eccles. Historians note that one reason 
America was able to win World War II, which took a great deal of money, 
is the advice President Franklin D. Roosevelt received from Marriner 
Eccles.
  Eccles was known as someone who thought deeply about problems and 
then acted without concern for the political consequences. When 
Congress passed the Banking Act of 1935, which sought to clarify the 
powers and responsibilities of the Reserve Board in matters of national 
monetary policy, and to increase the autonomy of regional Reserve 
Banks, he said, ``The function of banking and money is perhaps the most 
important of all in our entire economy.'' He then congratulated the 
Congress for working ``tirelessly and conscientiously to reconcile 
different points of view in accordance with what they believed to be in 
the public interest.''
  After his Fed service, Eccles returned to the banking business in 
Utah. He died in 1977. In 1982, the Federal Reserve Building in 
Washington, D.C. was renamed in his honor. His descendants continued to 
carry out his legacy of public service. The Marriner S. Eccles 
Foundation has given generously to higher education, hospitals and 
medical research, arts and culture and family and social services, 
including programs supporting the elderly, the disabled and the 
homeless. As a community, as a state and as a country, we continue to 
reap the benefits of Marriner Eccles' intellect, dedication, compassion 
and commitment to American values and ideals.

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